From The Ashes Alt Timeline Bonus
by Deathscythe-Demiguy
Summary: This is a bonus scene for FTA that I decided not to include in the original story in order to write a sequel that conflicts with this. Heero and Wu-Fei attend a funeral service for Duo. kind of OOC, but I think its still worth posting.


Heero would hold it together. He didn't know why Quatre ahd insisted on this funeral. He had been coping. He had been getting better with Wu-fei, leaning on one another, being more emotionally raw than either of them ever had in front of another. Even more than with Duo. But this pointless show of "saying goodbye" was doing nothing but ripping the wound open again.

The garden was set up modestly, as modestly as they could expect Relena's gardens to be anyway. Thankfully, she wasn't present, but had allowed them the use of her home for the weekend. There was a small podium, a stereo, several chairs, a few snacks were on tables off to the side. All of Duo's favorite foods.

He swallowed the lump in his throat and spared a glance at Wu-fei, who was just out of reach to his right, trying not to react when people told Heero how sorry they were. No one know it wasn't just Heero who had lost his heart. He knew not to touch the other teen then. He could see how his body tensed, barely holding in the anguish and Heero felt regret for insisting he wouldn't go without Wu-fei. He hadn't realized just how selfish that request was.

They settled into the row of chairs, pilots front and center, Heero puling his seat close enough to feel Wu-fei's warmth without touching. Wu-fei visibly relaxed, apparently gleaning some comfort from their closeness.

He barely listened to Howard's story of how he'd met Duo, and Hilde choking out some ridiculous story about how Duo was there with them and wanted them to be friends and be happy and celebrate his death.

Then Quat pressed play on the stereo and was speaking, voice cracking occasionally. But Heero couldn't hear him. He was too focused on the song playing softly in the background.

"There was a time when I was alone

Nowhere to go and no place to call home

My only friend was the man in the moon

And even sometimes he would go away, too"

Heero was back to the first night they had kissed, awkwardly pressed against each other in Duo's single bed at some school. Duo had woken him with nightmares and told him about his time on L2. The church, being on the street, Howard, his feelings of loneliness.

"Peter Pan, Tinkerbell, Wendy Darling

Even Captain Hook, you are my perfect story book

Neverland, I love you so

You are now my home sweet home

Forever a lost boy at last

And for always I will say"

Heero recalled Duo reading Peter Pan one night after a mission that resulted in him having to take out a kid probably a couple years younger than them. Duo had held him, their enemy, with such care as he gurgled and sputtered and bled out in his lap. Then he stood abruptly and the mission was on again

Duo said the book reminded him of the orphanage. They read it to the kids, and Duo had prayed for peter pan to take him somewhere better than all of this.

Heero let out a quiet sob and his hand flew to Wu-fei's, lacing their fingers together. The Chinese teen looked over him in alarm, saying something Heero couldn't quite catch. His vision was blurred and his focus narrowed to the song and his memories.

"I am a lost boy from Neverland

Usually hanging out with Peter Pan

And when we're bored we play in the woods

Always on the run from Captain Hook

"Run, run, lost boy, " they say to me

Away from all of reality

Neverland is home to lost boys like me

And lost boys like me are free

Neverland is home to lost boys like me

And lost boys like me are free"

Free. At least that was true, Heero thought. And in that moment he wanted more than anything to be free, too. Be with Duo in his perfect neverland. With Wu-fei too.

When strong arms wrapped around him, pulling him tightly against a muscled chest and burying his face in raven hair, Heero realized he was sobbing.

He hadn't even felt himself move, but he had tried to flee the gardens. For what, he wasn't sure, but Wu-fei was clinging to him desperately as they sat in a heap on the ground. Quat's hand was pressed comfortingly into his shoulder, and when he looked up through tears and wisps of Wu-fei's hair, he could see the backs of a couple of people.

His tears slowed to a few hiccuping shudders, and Howard was reaching out to ruffle his hair in a surprisingly tender gesture. He could feel Wu-fei trembling under him and Heero was aware of how startling this must have been for them all.

"Make them go." He whispered, intending for Quatre to hear, but it was Howard who stepped up, ushering everyone away. "They're going. Its just us, love." Wu-fei said softly, even as he lifted a shaking hand to rest on Heero's cheek. It took several more minutes before both of them regained their composure. Heero stood, pulling his companion up by the hand, and pulling him along to find Quatre to let him know they could continue.

The guests filtered back into the garden, deciding the ceremony was over and it was time for food and drink. Heero was exhausted, but he was able to talk with his friends, and those close to Duo so long as he had Wu-fei right with him. The entire afternoon he never let go of Wu-fei's hand. Duo wouldn't want them to hide and he surely wouldn't want either of them to go without comfort. So he took it and hoped that Wu-fei was comforted as well.

Judging by the small chuckle he gave every time Heero tried to go off in another direction and tugged at him, It sounded like he was in better spirits. And when the other pilot leaned up to brush a kiss to his cheek, Heero was startled by how much they had become like Duo. Everything he had gifted them and how precious those gifts were now that he was gone. He had given them each other. When their eyes met, he knew Wu-fei was thinking the same thing.


End file.
